We were in rehearsal now. The magical fairies were situated center stage in the middle of a forest. Huge green and yellow paper trees stood at least seven feet high. The Wednesdays were backstage, attempting to get the strings of lights wrapped around the huge props to glow. Tiny eleven-year-old Lester Manchester, Sam’s mentee, was the only Wednesday to have any success—he lit one single bulb. The rest of the powerless Wednesdays? Nada.
I watched as Lester turned toward Mr. Fluxnut to ask, “And will he be coming back?” Of course, he was asking about Sam.
“He had to leave due to an unexpected family issue, so I’m not sure how long it will be,” Mr. Fluxnut said robotically. For a drama teacher, he could have at least acted concerned.
Why wouldn’t he have told us about an “unexpected issue”?
“Now, how are we supposed to have an enchanted forest when you Wednesdays can’t even do your part?” Mr. Fluxnut yelled, walking away from Lester and across the stage, flicking the rest of the lights on himself.
“Continue,” he yelled. “Let’s go, Poppy! Hustle, hustle, please!”
I entered stage right while the other Monday fairies swarmed around me, and read, “How now, spirit? Whither wander you?”
Sabrina, who was playing Fairy One, responded, “Over hill, over dale, Thorough bush, thorough brier, Over park, over pale, Through …”
Sabrina hesitated. She didn’t know her next line.
“Uh … um … uh …” she stuttered.
“Book!” Mr. Fluxnut yelled.
In a flick of my wrist, I telekinetically lifted a script from the front of the stage and into the hands of Sabrina.
She frowned. “I’ll never get this,” she said, reading over her lines.
Mr. Fluxnut rested his elbows on the edge of the stage and spoke. “It’s really not that difficult to remember a few measly lines. I knew I gave you a minor role for a reason,” he said through tight lips.
I could see tears begin to form in the corners of Sabrina’s eyes and rested my hand on her shoulder. She brushed the teardrops away with the back of her hand.
Mr. Fluxnut jumped up on stage and stood so close to Sabrina that only she and I could hear. Unless, of course, you were a mind-reading Thursday.
“If your Monday power is as weak as your memorization skills, then you might as well be a Sunday, just like your mother,” Mr. Fluxnut continued through gritted teeth, staring Sabrina straight in the eyes.
“I … I … um …” she mumbled, running off stage, with sobs escaping from her lips. I followed after her.
“Not cool,” I yelled at Mr. Fluxnut as I jumped off the stage. I followed Sabrina down the backstage stairs to the dressing room area. “Continue, everyone!” Mr. Fluxnut’s voice cut through the air. Obviously, he didn’t care about the fact he just ran a poor little powerless Monday offstage.
I got to the bottom of the stairs just as the dressing room door slammed in my face. I knocked gently three times. “Sabrina? Can I come in?”
Silence.
“It’s me … Poppy.”
“Leave me alone,” she responded through sobs. I didn’t have to read her mind to know she was embarrassed and upset by what had just occurred.
“Is she okay?” Logan asked, placing a hand on my shoulder.
“Please, I just want to talk to you,” I pleaded toward the door.
I turned to face Logan. “Just focus on Lester and Deklan right now,” I whispered to him. “I need to deal with this alone.” I grabbed his hand and squeezed it.
Is everything okay? I heard Ellie ask in my head.
I’ll be up soon, I thought back to her.
I knocked again. “Please,” I asked one more time, now resting my head on the wooden door. I was just beginning to know Sabrina, and already she seemed defeated. Mr. Fluxnut just made it even worse. It was my job to help her master her Monday power, so I wasn’t about to give up. That’s just not what a Mayberry does.
Creak. Sabrina’s bright blue eyes peeked out. “Is anyone else out there?”
“Just me.” I smiled.
“I’m just having a tough time with this …” she paused and rolled her eyes. “All of this.”
She didn’t have to say anything more. The pressure of mastering her Monday power was difficult enough, but now she also had to perform in front of an audience—in less than two weeks—in a play directed by the weirdest, meanest man ever.
“I know this seems tough,” I said, even though Sabrina’s challenge to memorize a few lines was nothing compared to the challenge Ellie, Logan, Sam, and I had last summer.
“But it feels just as hard as your challenge was,” she said, responding to the comment I just made. In my head.
My body went stiff.
“I never said that aloud,” I whispered to her.
She shrugged and sat down in a chair, hands on her head. “I wanted to tell you before, Poppy.”
Tell me what? I thought, testing her.
“That I’m not just a Monday,” she said matter-of-factly.
Sabrina was just like me. I knew it for sure. I also knew that her mom was a powerless weekend and her dad was a Tuesday, and to be a cusper, your cusp power had to match the power of one of your parents. So how could that even happen? It didn’t make sense.
I sat down in the chair across from her. “When did you know you had two powers?”
Before she could answer though, there was a knock on the door. “What’s going on in here?” Headmistress Larriby asked, wedging through the half-open door.
“We’re just finishing up,” I answered. I brushed a strand of frilly red hair from my face and stood up. “She just came down with a small case of stage fright,” I said nonchalantly. By the look on Larriby’s face, she bought my lie. I hoped she couldn’t see my shaking hands.
“Come on,” I said, grabbing Sabrina’s hand. “Let’s get back up there.”
There was still so much I needed to learn about the whole cusp power thing. If a girl with a powerless Sunday mother and a teleporting Tuesday father was a cusper, then there was more to these cusp powers than I thought. Somebody wasn’t telling the whole truth.
Chapter Thirteen
I walked up to my room to let Pickle wander around a bit before meeting up with Logan and Ellie to fill them in on the Sabrina situation. Together, we would all be able to figure it out. It was just so strange that someone with a Thursday cusp power, without a parent who’s a Thursday, could actually be a … well … Thursday.
I fumbled with the giant purple headpiece in my hand—the prop I’d be wearing during the performance—as I attempted to get a good grasp of my room key to unlock the door. That wasn’t going well, so I used my Monday power to suspend the headpiece in air, but just as I rounded the corner of the hallway, my telekinetic thought flew from my head and the purple and sparkle-embellished prop crashed to the wooden planks below my feet. Someone I didn’t expect to see was waiting outside my room—Veronica.
The key dropped from my other hand as we rushed to hug one another.
“I’m sorry,” she said. I wasn’t sure if she said it aloud or in her head, but I knew that she meant it either way.
“I’m sorry,” I said right back.
We pulled away from each other and smiled.
“I just—” we spoke at the same time.
“You go,” I said.
“I have to tell you something that really can’t wait.” She looked left and then right, her eyes shifting nervously up and down the hallway.
“Come on,” I said, “let’s get inside.”
We entered my room to see Ellie propped up on her bed, reading.
“Huh,” Veronica sighed.
I knew Ellie was the last person she wanted to see, but I wasn’t about to kick my roommate out of her own room. Plus, Ellie and Veronica were both my friends, and it was about time they became comfortable with each other.
“Hey, Veronica,” Ellie perked
up. She lifted her pointer finger toward the dresser drawer.
“Uhh … hmm,” I gruffed, hoping she would catch my hint.
Her finger shot back to her side and she used her hands to place the magazine back in her nightstand. Even if someone else knew about my cusp power, I wasn’t ready for Veronica to see that she shared Monday with Ellie, as well. That was an invitation for even more jealousy.
“So what was it you wanted to tell me?” I asked Veronica, trying to draw her attention away from the faux pas Ellie almost made.
“Does she have to be here?” Veronica whispered, gesturing toward Ellie.
I had to make a decision. And quick. Either I let Ellie stay, making Veronica upset yet again. Or I tell Ellie to leave, which would make her upset with me. Ugh. Why did Veronica have to put me in this position?
I looked at Veronica, and then Ellie, and then back at Veronica and shrugged.
“I can take a hint,” Ellie said, grabbing her magazine from the nightstand and stomping out of the room. She obviously read my mind.
Once the door slammed behind her I spoke. “Seriously? Do you have to be so rude?” It seemed that our conversations always came back to this. To Ellie. To Veronica’s jealousy.
Veronica plopped herself down on Ellie’s bed and sighed. “Look, I didn’t come here to argue with you. I just need to fill you in on some things and then you can go back to your,” she nodded toward the door, “friend.”
“Did you get my letter?” I asked hopefully, trying to show her that I cared about her. About our friendship.
The corners of Veronica’s mouth turned up slightly. “Yes. Thank you. Logan dropped it off.”
But that’s not why she was here. I could sense that.
“I thought it better to talk to you in person rather than write back,” she paused and glanced down to her lap. “This is something that I need to say face-to-face. Especially considering the weird things you mentioned in the letter.”
“What a sec,” I said, just realizing something. “How did you get here, anyway?”
Veronica sat down on Ellie’s bed and Pickle hopped up next to her. Veronica’s eyes darted up and to the room’s four corners. “There aren’t, like, any cameras or anything in here, right?” she asked.
“No, not that I know of,” I replied. She was scaring me.
Veronica leaned in closer to me. “I got a ride with your dad.” She shrugged her shoulders.
“I know there’s more to the story than that,” I said.
“Well, he didn’t actually know I was in the car. Before he left for work this morning, I simply got in the back of his car, hid under a blanket, and then hopped out once he got in the N.P.C. building.”
“That is so something you’d see on television!” I said, shocked that Veronica could pull it off.
“Right? Don’t you think it’s weird that we have to be so sneaky about everything in this town?”
I nodded. Veronica was right. We weren’t allowed to use our weekday powers outside of Nova, let alone step foot outside of our town. I couldn’t tell anyone about my cusp power. Nobody knew where my friend Sam went, and nobody was talking about it. And we can’t even get visitors at Power Academy. “Yes. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to visit Power Academy any time you want to.”
“I heard something I need you to know.” Veronica took a breath and began. “So yesterday, I stopped by your house to drop off those three headbands I borrowed a few weeks ago.” I remembered. Veronica’s cousin got married and Veronica had narrowed her outfits down to three—one red, one pink, and one purple. I have a headband to match every outfit I own, so naturally she came to me to accessorize.
“Anyway, your mom and dad told me just to take them up to your room. So I did. And I did it fast.”
“Okay …”
“But they must not have heard me coming back down the stairs because I heard them whispering about something in the kitchen.” She scooted closer to me.
“What does this have to do with weird stuff in my letter?”
Veronica rolled her eyes. “I’m getting there.”
“Okay.”
“Well, your dad’s worked at Nova Power Corporation for what, like 20 years, right?”
“Yeah. So?” I wished she would get to the point.
“I heard him bring up a couple names of weekdays going missing over the last two years or so. He mentioned a name I didn’t recognize, so I just brushed it off. I mean, sometimes people just go missing. Runaways, moving, stuff like that.”
I nodded, leaning closer to her.
“But then he said Sam’s name, and that’s when I really started to listen.” Veronica pointed toward the door. I knew she was double-checking to see that it was closed.
“Poppy, Sam isn’t like the rest of us,” she whispered so quietly I could barely hear. This would be the perfect time to tell her about my secret. Should I? I thought.
“What do you mean?” I asked, sensing her answer was something I was all too familiar with.
“Your dad called him something. A cusper, I think it was.” Her eyes grew wide. “Sam has double the power of a regular Wednesday.”
“Wow,” I said, feigning surprise. How much did she really hear? “But how?”
“I don’t know, but these cuspers can have double their power or the powers of two weekdays.”
I swallowed, thinking about poor Sam, wherever he was now, and knowing what she was about to say.
“And they’re disappearing, Poppy. I heard your dad say it. They’re disappearing, and no one, not even your dad, can figure where they’re going.”
I tried to wrap my head around what Veronica had just said. People were going missing. Not just any people. Cuspers. I swallowed hard, knowing I could very well be next the next one.
Chapter Fourteen
Last year, if you’d asked me if I wanted to have two powers, I’m not sure how I would have answered. Really, I had just wanted to be good at one. And if I knew two powers would be dangerous to me, then I definitely wouldn’t have wanted them.
Ellie, Logan, and I sat in Headmistress Larriby’s office, waiting for her. She didn’t know we were here. She hadn’t bothered to change the combination on the lock from last year, so we simply typed it in and voila. No need to use powers of any sort.
Last year’s challenge was a way for us to not only prove our powers, but also to realize our true potential as cuspers. As much as I wanted to believe that the disappearances of Sam and the other cuspers was another challenge, I had a bad feeling about it. This wasn’t just something concocted in the strange minds of Larriby and Grimeley. We weren’t playing with missing jewelry, athletic equipment, musical instruments, and dogs. Human lives were at stake this time.
The doorknob turned slowly.
“What the—” Mrs. Larriby said, obviously taken aback by our appearance in her office.
She sighed. “I know why you’re here,” she said, taking a seat behind her desk. You just can’t let that thing with Mark Masters go, can you? she thought to me, her eyes burning into me so hard that I thought I would catch fire right then and there.
“There is something strange happening here, and we want to know what,” I said matter-of-factly.
“And we don’t plan on leaving unless you tell us,” Logan chimed in.
“Hmmm,” Larriby sighed, giving us the same nervous look she did when Mr. Fluxnut entered the room on the first day of camp. He had told her something that frightened her, and I had a feeling that she was about to tell us. I used my Thursday power. Should I or not?
“I feel like we need to know what’s going on,” Ellie said, gingerly, and innocently batted her eyelashes. “First that thing with Mark, which Poppy obviously told us about.” Headmistress Larriby scowled at me. Ellie continued, “And then Sam disappears. And then Veronica show—” Ellie paused, her eyes meeting mine. “I mean, we just want to know what’s going on.”
Be
ads of sweat began to form on Larriby’s brow. She looked terrified. She scooted her seat into the desk and leaned toward us.
“Okay,” she said, puffing out a lungful of air. She made up her mind to tell us. “You really should know because it has everything to do with you.”
Ellie’s arm lifted and pointed to the office door. It slammed shut.
“Someone’s doing something with some of the cuspers,” Headmistress Larriby whispered.
“Excuse me? What?” Ellie demanded.
“Well, we’re not entirely sure what is happening. Let’s just say, for a bit of time, some cuspers have … well, just be careful,” she said, without finishing her original sentence. Luckily, my Thursday power was now strong enough to read from her mind what she wanted to say: vanished.
“What do you mean, vanished?” Ellie asked, obviously reading Larriby’s mind, too.
Larriby sighed. “I’m sorry to be telling you this but, yet again, I haven’t been completely honest with you all.”
“No kidding,” Logan mumbled. “When are you ever honest with us?”
Silence.
Headmistress Larriby tapped her pointer finger on the table in front of her. “Part of the reason you’re at Power Academy this summer is to help the weekdays become proficient in their given powers. That is the truth. But we have you here for another reason as well.”
“Who’s the we?” Ellie asked. I also wanted to know the answer.
“Mayor Masters and I, of course.”
Of course. That made sense. That’s probably why Mayor Masters has been checking on us these last few days.
“Due to the missing cuspers, Mayor Masters felt it was in your best interest to stay here under the pretense of camp counselors.” She paused, and pulled a file from her top desk drawer. “And until we find who’s behind this, you are here.” She shifted the folder to the other hand. “For your own safety.”
She slapped the folder down on her desk.
“How safe are we, really? I mean, Sam disappeared. And I don’t even know what was going on with Mark. And you’re trying to tell us that being here is in our best interest?” Logan asked, making air quotes with his fingers.
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